Tony Albrecht's Recent LinkedIn Posts

Every once in a while, one of the Old Guard pops up to remind us what LinkedIn is really for:   • Accolades. • Accreditations. • Accomplishments.   This is a "professional" platform, after all.   Until very recently, being professional meant never showing: • weakness, • vulnerability, • difficult emotions, or • opinions that diverge from the company line.   This screenshot was a comment left on a client's post by a lawyer I'll call Don.   Don has Ivy League pedigree.   My client went to a middle-of-the-pack law school—and had a very hard time there.   You wouldn't know it looking at what my guy's done in his career. He's truly excellent at what he does.   He also has one of the 10 strongest LinkedIn presences among US lawyers. But not because of his accomplishments.   People pay attention because he shares the journey that brought him here.   Losses. Struggles. Heartbreaks.   He shows the process.   Don would like my client to stick to the script. Only talk about the good stuff. Sweep the rest under the rug.   The problem with that? Your accomplishments aren't interesting.   We want to hear about the ups and downs along the way. That's the good stuff.   There will always be Dons throwing things from the peanut gallery. But for every 1 Don out there, there are many more people like the lawyer who left this comment on that post:   "I love your posts on this subject. Never change."   I'm not telling you to share your stories on LinkedIn. It's not for everybody.   But if you're thinking about it, you can't worry about Don. Do that, and you'll quit.   Talk to the people who want to hear your story.   You'll be just fine.

Spring is here huh? I guess that’s why I’m wearing shorts this morning. In college I remember a guy who’d wear cargo shorts basically all year round and claim it wasn’t that cold. After almost 5 years in Canada, I’ve become one of those people. 33 degrees (1 Celsius) for my Sunday morning long run of 15 miles is now balmy. I don’t know if that’s progress or evidence I’m losing my mind…. Do you know? ;-)

In 2013, I quit being an attorney (the first time). That decision looked crazy to some. My parents tried to talk me out of it. Friends encouraged me to reconsider. Why give up • the salary, • the benefits, • the stability. Why step off the clear path to professional success and financial security? The short answer: Because life is short, and I felt like I was just mailing it in. I worked with good people and actually liked the job I'd done for 2.5 years, which mostly involved flying around the country taking depositions. Maybe I was reading too much poetry back then, but I came to believe the Frost lines: Two roads diverged in a wood. I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. The road less traveled was worth exploring. I paused my young legal career and boarded a flight to Bangkok armed with a pack and a 1-way ticket. I wanted to spend a year exploring, flexing my creative and entrepreneurial muscles. A lot of well-meaning, smart people in my life thought that was a mistake. But when I told my managing partner I was quitting to travel, his response was: What took you so long? He knew the path I was on wasn't my path. I was living a story for success written for somebody else. And almost 13 years later, two things are abundantly clear to me. 1. I never could have predicted how my life would unfold. 2. That first decision has indeed made all the difference. Anybody else out here taken that leap? I'd love to get a glimpse of your story. ;-)

Feeling like you MUST post something on LinkedIn every single day is sorta like... Needing to get on stage every time you go to an open mic night— Regardless of whether you have something ready to play. If you go to a place where folks are getting up on stage, do you feel compelled to get up there regardless of whether you have anything to say? I'm guessing not. Yet when we get active on LinkedIn, there's this pull toward posting in voluminous quantities. Look at that lady with a million followers and posts 2x a day. Look at that dude with a billion followers posting 10x daily. They must be doing it right. Right? Maybe. But they're not where you are. And your goals are most likely not their goals. Here's a hill I'll willingly defend, though maybe not to the death... For most professionals out here: • 1 post a week where you really put your back into it is better than • 5 weekly posts where 3 are meh. Part of attracting attention out here is saying things worth paying attention to. The more you post, the harder it is to do that every time. Going back to the open mic night, sure, you can get on stage every single time. But isn't there something to be said for the enthusiastic supporter clapping from the front row?

Even after 3 years doing LinkedIn for a living, I still wrestle with perfectionism. I talk about quality over quantity when it comes to posting. That’s the approach we take with clients. And even though I post more or less daily, it’s still how I think about it for myself. I’ve been thinking for a while about what posting quantity with quality could look like for me. That’s how I’d describe Darren McKee’s game. He post more than once a day consistently. I almost never post more than once a day. But it’s not for a lack of content. Part of my motivation is to try to maintain healthy boundaries around how much time I spend hanging out with you people. But if I’m totally honest, there’s also that voice in my head telling me to be careful. Wouldn’t want to mess up… Wouldn’t want people to get tired of me… That voice is a lot quieter than it was when I left the practice of law four years ago. But it’s still there. I’m boarding a plane to Phoenix shortly for the Fireproof Performance Summit. I think I’ll play with that quantity with quality idea this week. This is my fourth Fireproof Summit, and every time I get a ton of ideas. Plus, no kids. 😜 I’ll keep you updated on this little experiment. Quantity with quality. Here we go. 👊

I had a post hit 50k precisely because I ignored the little angel on my shoulder. Historically, posts take 25+ minutes to write.  I write.  Then I edit.  Then I polish.  It’s a process. My posts are still more or less 100% organic. If you’re seeing it on my feed, chances are it hasn’t run through AI. I’ve been trying to write posts faster. I was surprised to see the 50k post start spreading. As I thought about it, I realized something about my content game. I’m often too careful. I will think of a hook like:  My billable rate as an attorney: ~ $300/hour. My hourly rate as whoever I am today— $1,000. My mind will immediately go to all the caveats:  • That’s not my hourly rate across all my work. • I’ve only booked 1 hourly consult at that rate.  • Oh god, am I insufferable?! And so on. I wanted to include all those things in the post. But I let it fly without adding all the fine print. That’s why the post went on a run. Because I didn’t answer so many questions in the post, I left space for folks to ask those questions in the comments. As Leonard Cohen put it, There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. I’m a lawyer by training and a perfectionist by nature. It’s really hard for me to leave cracks in my work. But for our LinkedIn stuff, Cohen is right. The cracks in our posts are how light, attention, questions, curiosity, and ultimately engagement get in.

My thought when I saw Tiger getting arrested— Man, I’m glad they didn’t have body cams in 2009. I’ve never been rich or famous, but I write about hitting rock bottom in a Guamanian jail cell on Thanksgiving night 2009. And Guam’s finest ushered me into that cell about 20 minutes after a field sobriety test like this one. I went to my first AA meeting the following weekend. And almost 16 years since my last drink, here are 3 things I believe. 1. Addiction doesn’t care: who you are how rich you are how many times you won the Masters. If you are wired a certain way, it’s going to come after you. 2. Addiction plays for keeps. I don’t know whether addiction is a malevolent force or a natural one, like gravity. But I’ve buried enough friends to know it’s not messing around. 3. There is hope. I have 52910, the date of my last drink, tattooed on my wrist as a reminder— I am granted a daily reprieve from my disease contingent on the maintenance of my spiritual condition. If I keep taking things 1 day at a time, I have a good shot at today going pretty well. If I let my ego start running amok for a while, all bets are off. It might be tempting to see Tiger’s most recent arrest as the natural consequence of arrogance and excess. Maybe it is. He also seems to have addiction issues. I hope Tiger gets the help he needs. And if you’re struggling with addiction—or love someone who is—I hope you do too.

My post from yesterday is at 35,561 views. In October, that same post got 22,334 views. The posts weren’t entirely the same. The first version was 375 words (a proper novel by Linky post standards). I cut it down to 275 words and updated it. But it was: • Mostly the same words • Same core insight • Same image. I’m lucky to have a pretty easy time with my clients. They trust that I know what I’m doing. That said, the most pushback I get from clients has been around... Remixing posts and running them back. And I understand the resistance. I’ve wrestled with it. We want every post to be original. We think people will notice. We worry they’ll judge us harshly. I promise you. Almost nobody will notice. Nobody will judge you harshly. And you don’t need to be original every time. As the French author Andre Gide put it: Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since nobody was listening, everything must be said again. My general approach has been to run solid posts back every 6 months or so. That said, guys like Matt Barker and Jimmy Lai have had good luck with far shorter cycles. We’re talking weeks in between instead of months. The timing is less important than the principle, which is this— Your best source of great LinkedIn posts is your own experiences. The stories you’ve lived and lessons you’ve learned. And your second-best source of great LinkedIn posts is previous LinkedIn posts. It's helped me to think about posts more like songs than books. People want you to play the hits. Are you a remixer yet? Or nah? —— PS - I rely on AuthoredUp to analyze post performance and find stuff to remix. They’re not paying me for the mention, but I’m a fan. If you want to try AU, I’ve got a few discount codes that will get you 15% off the $20 sub. DM me.

At 38, I was an attorney in my hometown of St. Louis with: • a 6-figure salary • excellent benefits • a newly built house • a strong local network • a corner office downtown • a partnership offer on the way. At 40? I was a former attorney living in Canada with: • no salary • no office • no benefits • no real network • a new business (w/ $0 in revenue). I also had a wife and 2 kids under 3 depending on me to figure it out. Moving to Canada and leaving the practice of law 6 months apart? Most stressful period of my life. Deciding to start over professionally at 40? With those stakes? Hands down the best career decision I've made. If I've learned anything from this weird and wonderful ride, it's this— Progress is neither linear nor predictable. Maybe the best we can do is keep going and (try to) learn to enjoy the ride.

A new client has 1,111 LinkedIn connections. She had posts reach 81k and 32k views in 1 month. Another new client has 2,878 followers. In our first 6 weeks, he's had posts reach: • 162k • 87k • 38k, and • 29k. You don't need a big network to have a post reach a lot of people. You just need a post to resonate with a group of people. That's what leads to a post spreading. I'm not saying network size doesn't matter at all... But network size doesn't really matter out here.

How does a paralegal who started her LinkedIn account 6 months ago have a post break 100k views? It's fairly simple. Lara Bradshaw had: • a strong opinion about the practice of law; • a specific story illustrating that opinion; and • the willingness to tell that story out here. That's all Lara needed to square this post up beautifully. And I'll add a 4th bonus element that has helped set Lara up for success. • Sharif Gray and Gray Broughton, the firm's named partners, are fully supportive of their team letting posts rip. Rumors of the death of organic reach on LinkedIn have been....mildly exaggerated. Strong opinion. Specific story. Let it rip. Not every post that follows that framework will go viral. But some will. And regardless of how far a post spreads, you can increase the chances your message resonates with somebody. That's really the goal.

Very, very few law students leverage LinkedIn. Spencer May is one of those few. Each of the last 3 years, I’ve had a law student I called my #1 draft pick among all law students on LinkedIn. I’ve just noticed that 1 law student stood out to me more than any other. 2 years ago, it was KimberMarie Faircloth. Last year, Amanda Freeman, Esq. This year? No doubt, it’s Spencer May out of Arizona. He does a phenomenal job executing the basic strategy I talk about. Be consistent. Be generous. Be interesting. He even wrote THE book about how law students can create opportunities on LinkedIn. https://lnkd.in/e_b-sBj9 And since I’m in Phoenix this week for the Fireproof Summit, of course I wanted to meet up in person. He was coming from speaking on a panel that included a few AZ Supreme Court justices, a successful firm owner… and a relatively random law student from another law school. Guess why they invited him? I’ll give you 3 guesses. ;-) This platform can change your life. If you’re a law student feeling the pressure of an uncertain future, I’ve been there. Buy Spencer’s book. Or hell, DM me. I’ll buy you his book. Seriously. I would love nothing more than if this post costs me $250 because 25 law students message me saying they want to learn more about how to use LinkedIn. There’s so much opportunity out here. We need more folks doing what Spencer has done out here.

I got 7,500 steps this morning responding to DMs that had fallen through the cracks this month... You would think that doing LinkedIn for a living, I'd be awesome about the DMs. Sometimes I am. Sometimes I'm not. My apologies to anybody who’s had a DM or comment  fall through the cracks over the last couple weeks. It was not intentional. Except for yours, Jerry. That one….That one was intentional.  You know what you did... The DMs fall through the cracks not because I'm big-leaguing people. I'm not blowing them off. It happens because I'm an ADHD founder perpetually struggling to find a balance between growing a company and being a present husband and father to my 2 young kids. Progress > Perfection I’m lucky that this principle applies to what I'm doing on LinkedIn, at CONTENDER, and at home. Because I don't know about you, but I'm far from perfect on every front. Which means sometimes I spend an hour on a Friday morning just circling back with folks I didn't mean to leave hanging. Anyway....happy Friday! ;-b Side note: Did that Jerry joke land? I laughed as I typed it so I’m keeping it, but I’m not sure it’s clear that I made that up. I named him Jerry because I’m in the middle of my biannual Seinfeld binge.

If you're thinking about borrowing $100k to go to law school next year, I strenuously object. Right now is literally the worst time ever to take on a bunch of debt to get a JD. I don't like giving career advice. As a guy who's torched his career as an attorney twice, I'm the last guy to tell you what to do. But I will offer a warning. I noticed something seriously alarming looking at these law school enrollment numbers going back to the 1960s. Law school enrollment peaked in 2010, a downstream effect of the Great Recession. I remember that. I came out of law school in 2009. To get a decent job as a lawyer, I flew 10,000 miles from my hometown of St. Louis to take an associate role on the island of Guam. It was a weird time. Last year, enrollment was down 18% from that 2010 peak. But what alarmed me looking at this graph is that little uptick over there on the far right. It looks like more people are enrolling next year than during any year of the previous decade. On one hand, that makes sense. Like with that bump you see during COVID or the recession, when economic uncertainty increases, more people opt for grad school. Here's the problem with pursuing that strategy in 2026, folks. The AI revolution is here. And I fear it's going to obliterate a massive number of jobs for lawyers early in their careers. I'm seeing this in my own little agency, where AI is already better than any junior copywriter I've ever seen. And I'm seeing my clients—almost all law firm owners—wrestle with this new paradigm in their firms. What we're seeing across the board is organizations learning how to make more happen—without hiring more people. And the simple math that firms are going to be doing more and more in the coming years is something like: Would I rather: • spend $75k or $90k or $150k (plus benefits and all the complications that come with people) on a recent law school grad who has no idea how to practice law?...or • spend a tiny fraction of that amount on an AI that moves at the speed of sound and never needs a day off? Different business owners will make different decisions on that. But make no mistake— Just about every business owner is going to face that decision. Many already are. If you can go to law school without racking up debt or if your heart is 100% set on it, then by all means, go for it. But if you don't know what you want to be when you grow up and are thinking about law school because you believe it's a responsible career choice, please consider your alternatives. Having taken on $100k in law school debt, I can say from experience that loans reduce flexibility. And as you navigate the uncertainty we're facing, you're going to want as much flexibility as you can get. Is this reasonable advice? Or do I sound like I'm out of my mind?

Here are 7 steps to becoming the top LinkedIn storyteller in Canada: 1. Move to Canada from the US. 2. Stop being a lawyer who ignores LinkedIn entirely. 3. Start hanging out on the platform. Make friends. 4. Start telling stories on LinkedIn once or twice a week. 5. Have Matrix-like moment; suddenly know LinkedIn kung fu. 6. Keep telling stories on LinkedIn. Hundreds of stories. 7. Don't leave Canada. Thanks to Favikon for the fun data point. I don't know how replicable (or desirable) that path is. But here we are. ;-) If you've got any questions about how to tell better stories on LinkedIn, drop them below. I'll answer every one.

In my office at 6 am one morning last August, I jotted a list of what I needed in a ghostwriter. I’d been trying (and failing) to hire my first full-time ghostwriter for well over a year. This hire is literally the hardest thing I’ve done in my career. Harder than anything I did in 12 years practicing law. How is that possible? Because I’m nuts. I’m a maniac about quality. My standards are…high. And I’d built this business from nothing based on that maniacal commitment to being the best at what we do, both in terms of our product and our client relationships. Last summer, I thought I’d found the guy who was going to help bust that ceiling here. Then he broke my heart. (Post for another day, but it’s all good. Still friends ;-b) It was on the heels of that LinkedIn nerd heartbreak that I jotted that list. I’d realized that I hadn’t found the right person because I’d been looking for the wrong things. What I thought I needed in our second ghostwriter was not, in fact, what I needed. What did I need? Somebody who: • Had substantial experience as an attorney in the US • Knows how to play on LinkedIn • Is creative and entrepreneurial; and • Is (extremely) competitive. I wrote those things down. I looked at them. And I said… That’s Jess. I had never really thought about hiring Jess Sargus. She had never expressed a desire to join my team. But she was the first and only person who came to mind. I messaged her right then asking if she’d be interested in talking. 5 hours later, we were on the phone. 5 days later, she joined us part-time. Within 2 months, she had a robust roster of clients. Within 4 months, she officially joined CONTENDER full time. Yesterday was not the first time Jess and I have met in person. But it was the first time we’ve ridden in a Waymo together. Jess and I are out in Scottsdale for the Fireproof Summit, hanging out with clients and making some new friends. This is the first event where I’m not flying solo representing CONTENDER. There’s that cliche about how building a great business is all about great people. It’s a cliche because it’s true. I’m lucky to be surrounded by a team of great people. Like Jess.

I was uncoachable until 38.  Now I’m trying to make up for lost time. I’ve got coaches for mindset, running, and YouTube. I also have a business coach in Melissa Martin at Fireproof Performance. And over the last 18 months, Fireproof has transformed my business. How? Here are 4 specific ways: 1. Annual and quarterly planning. Before FP: Just keep marching. After FP: Every quarter we get together with our coach Melissa to identify and align on our biggest priorities. The decisions we make in those meetings guide what happens during the months between. 2. The Jumbotron. Before FP: We don't track anything. After FP: We have a series of metrics we track on a weekly basis. They keep us clear on our progress toward those goals we set. John Nachazel is a magician on this stuff. 3. Weekly Leadership Team Meetings.  Before FP: What's a leadership team? After FP: Every week, I meet with my leadership team to address issues in the business. Our LTM is an hour dedicated to talking through (and solving) pressing challenges. During a given meeting, we will work through 2-4 issues. We identify the problem we're trying to solve. We discuss it. We arrive at either a solution or clear next steps to progress. 4. Delegate and Elevate:  Before FP: It all falls on me (Tony). After FP: Each team member knows how they contribute to the mission, and they're empowered to do their thing. I started my first business at 40. Before that, I spent 12 years working in other people's law firms at a lawyer. I had billable hours requirements and measured my success largely based on whether I was hitting those targets.   The hardest thing I've ever done in my career is transition from: • individual contributor to • leader whose success is measured not by my own contributions, but by how effectively I empower my teammates to deliver at a high level.      It's only been in the last 6 months that I've really started to figure this out and it would not have happened without Mike Morse's influence. These 4 things might seem obvious. They're certainly not rocket science. But implementing these changes has had a truly profound impact on CONTENDER. Revenue has tripled. So has the number of full-time team members. But maybe more important than the numbers are the vibes. We have: • more clarity • more alignment, and • more fun. We also have • less stress, • less miscommunication, and • less chaos. We're growing. Things feel better. And the folks at Fireproof are at the top of my list of people to thank. I wish I'd become coachable far earlier than I did. But we're making up for lost time. Have you experienced the transformational power of coaching yet?

Anybody else ever booked a cross-continent redeye flight just for kicks? Since my flight back to Toronto from Phoenix doesn’t leave for another 6 hours and I’m solo, let’s hang out. I havent done an Ask Me Anything in a while. Topics we can riff on: - training for a “backyard ultramarathon” in June where my goal is to run a 4-mile loop, every hour on the hour, from Saturday morning until Sunday evening - relatedly, what my 2nd run of the day feels like rn when it’s 97 and very sunny (3 days ago I ran in snow) - how to make good things happen on LinkedIn - what I learned from 2 days in a room with amazing, generous entrepreneurs building 7-, 8-, and 9-figure businesses. I’ve been in sponge mode. Thanks Fireproof Performance for another awesome event. - figuring out how to double revenue this year to break that $1M mark in my own business Anybody out here on a Friday night?

I just sent Spencer May’s book about LinkedIn to students in 6 different states: Wisconsin Oregon Minnesota Alabama Ohio Pennsylvania That’s pretty cool. But I’m not satisfied. I posted last week about meeting Spencer, my #1 LinkedIn law student for the class of ‘26, in person for the first time. He all wrote THE book on how law students can leverage LinkedIn. During his 3L year. With a job. And a toddler at home. No idea how he’s done it all. But I said I’d love for that post to cost me $250. So far? $60. I’ve spent $60 sending Memorable Law Students around the country. https://a.co/d/04s2YpZg Yet I’ve seen all you law students checking my profile out. Don’t think I don’t see you. 😉 I’m guessing some of you need more convincing. Or maybe you don’t think I was serious. So I’ll say it again. I’d love Spencer May’s book to cost me $250. Want a copy? DM me. And genuinely, thank you to the 6 who’ve taken me up on it so far. We need more students learning to network in digital space. And fast.

TD Bank: Trust us with your money. Also TD: Here, we even got you a piggy bank. Hopefully they use a different material for their vaults.

I've now shipped 5 YouTube videos in 5 weeks. In the process, I've learned that I love drawing concepts out on the iPad. I’ve always been a writer.  I’ve never been a drawer. I was never good at drawing. Or painting. Even my handwriting sucks. But for some reason, I’ve having a lot of fun visually mapping concepts out in real time while recording the videos. Are they helpful to viewers?  I have no idea. Still too soon to tell. I do know, however, that I’m having a great time doing it. Which is, in and of itself, a signal. If you want to check out the most recent video featuring this masterpiece (produced with the help of Ecamm Live), please do:  https://lnkd.in/gWHNtRfC And I’ll give $3 to anybody who can guess what the hell I’m drawing there without watching the video. ;-b Bonus points if you then smash that subscribe button. We've gotten to 50, and I've heard that at 55 subs, a highway mile somewhere in America gets named for you...

How'd I go from lawyer to the LinkedIn guy for lawyers? I got lucky. That's truly how I feel. When I say that to people, I get pushback. That it wasn't luck. And it's true, in the sense that it wasn't dumb luck. But as Naval Ravikant has described, there are 4 types of luck: 1. dumb luck 2. luck through motion 3. luck via awareness 4. luck through uniqueness (aka magnetism). The other 3 of those 4 types of luck played a significant part of my LinkedIn journey. In my YouTube video that just went live, I'm breaking down: • the 4 types of luck, • how they played out for me, and • how you can get lucky out here too. You can find it here: https://lnkd.in/eZq8YVJh And as my 7-year-old likes to say, smash that subscribe button. Do you believe in luck? ;-)

Here's a reminder that just about every LinkedIn creator needs on a weekly basis— Not all posts behave the same way. Somewhere along the way, we got the impression that how much reach or engagement a post gets is a natural, predictable result of our follower count or our posting volume. The equation in our heads might look something like: 10,000 (followers) + 7 (posts weekly) = 10,000 impressions/post That's not how it works. Different types of posts behave differently. Different types of creators have different ceilings for (most of) their stuff. If you are PERCEIVED as a seller, your posts will not spread as far as if you're seen simply as a leader in a space. To show you what I mean, here's a snapshot of impressions from a client's last 6 posts. This client is a leader both in the legal profession and the entrepreneurial arena. He is among the top 15 US lawyers on LinkedIn. He goes viral consistently. Once in a while, we ship a post intended to inspire a specific group of people to take a specific action. A sales post. When you look at this screenshot— Can you pick out the sales post? I'll bet you can. It's the only post below 10k impressions. That makes sense, doesn't it? If you're trying to sell something on LinkedIn, you better not be trying to talk to everybody. That's a good way to go broke. And if you're not trying to talk to everybody... If you're just talking to your ideal client... Then why in god's name would anybody else pay attention? Your post is not FOR them. So to recap: Not all posts behave the same way. Posts from perceived sellers tend to not spread as far. And here's a hill I'll at least defend, if not to the death— This seller-vs-leader dynamic affects reach exponentially more than your follower count. Does that make sense?

I've posted a YouTube video 4 weeks in a row. 350 views. 45 subscribers (up from 3). My video Friday is about the 4 types of luck, and the role each played in how my unlikely LinkedIn journey has unfolded. https://lnkd.in/ei8gzMbv This clip zeroes in on the 4th one. But for most of us, I believe it's the second one there that makes all the difference. Luck Through Motion. What's that mean? Getting reps. Learning by doing. Increasing the surface area for luck to find us. I posted ~300 times on LinkedIn before I ever had anything to really sell. In 2022, I was spending 2 hours a day + on this platform. All those reps. All that time. All that motion helped me get lucky in starting CONTENDER. Now, I'm in dog-chasing-cars mode on YouTube. Just focused on getting reps. And getting used to drawing/writing on the iPad. My handwriting sucks in real life, and it's somehow worse on the screen, isn't it? ;-b I'd appreciate you smashing that subscribe button. Are you familiar with the 4 types of luck? I love the framework.